Dutch (alto- and soprano-) saxophoneplayer Joris Posthumus waited six years before he was ready to release his second album under his own name. Posthumus formed a new group consisting five Japanese musicians and recorded Tokyo’s Bad Boys. Posthumus’ love for Japan arose during a tour through China in 2011, where …

Trumpeter Marquis Hill has been an active presence in Chicago’s jazz venues for over five years, but he came to greater national attention two years ago when he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. The fact that Hill had been invigorating Chicago’s jazz scene considerably in various ways without …

The value of the jazz community most frequently becomes apparent when sharing the joy that the music brings. But jazz as a community, in addition to jazz as an art form, rises to a higher level when those within it provide support during important occasions or at times of need. …

Noah Preminger’s guiding virtue, increasingly evident as his discography grows, is authenticity. A refreshing virtue it is. He states that, in order to avoid trendiness, he doesn’t often listen to recordings. So Preminger’s solution to prevent sounding like everyone else on iTunes’s “Hot Albums” is to shut it out. Nonetheless, …

Jim Mings and Monty Craig formed the jazz guitar duo Mings and Craig to release their debut album Day By Day. Although both have a personal career, academically teaching included, they joined forces in 2015. To enjoy the album, it requires two basic preconditions. Firstly, you have to like a …

Los Angeles had its Black Dahlia Murder. Lesser known is Cleveland’s horrific murder of 16-year-old Beverly Jarosz. Both were inexplicable still-unsolved crimes that the media sensationalized at the time. Coincidentally, these brutal murders also captured the spirits of those cities. Their descriptions or depictions usually include atmospheric references associated with …

Dr. Lonnie Smith is back. And in a big way. In the musical environment and with the production values that he deserves. At 73, Smith is one of the few remaining innovators/popularizers of the jazz organ, from the time when Hammond B-3 trios and quartets traveled mostly through the Midwest …

Jazz enthusiasts, loyal and passionate listeners as they are known to be, may assert that a decade or a specific style, such as swing or bebop, defines the golden age of jazz. But continuously accumulating, ground-breaking recordings by superlative musicians are establishing the fact that we are living in another …

Fred Hersch is sixty. Like other performers who remain inventive and artistically restless throughout their careers, Hersch has proven the irrelevancy of age. As have many of the musicians Hersch knew, including Jaki Byard or Stan Getz or Toots Thielemans. It’s a measure only of the years spent on earth. …

The Maria Schneider Orchestra has returned after eight years. Certainly a cause for celebration, the orchestra’s album, The Thompson Fields, wildly exceeds expectations. The Thompson Fields may end up as being considered Schneider’s signature achievement—the work that captures not only the incomparable sound of her orchestra in all of its …

Stage performers know that they can capture their audience’s hearts and minds by choosing music that the host neighborhoods/cities/states/provinces/countries value. Shrewdly, Kurt Elling, during his world travels, sang, sometimes in the localities’ native tongue, music well known in the countries that hosted him. While in France, sing what the French …

The winner of the 2012 Thelonious Monk Jazz Prize for drumming sings on his debut album. More Jamison Ross albums will follow, for sure. Jamison marks the auspicious beginning of his recording career, as have the early recordings of other Monk Competition winners like Ambrose Akinmusire, Jacky Terrasson, Jon Irabagon …

Two thousand fifteen marks the one hundredth birthday of two legendary singers who surpassed traditional categories: Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday. In his latest album, singer of the millennium José James, whose recordings are capturing increasing attention and acclaim, has suppressed his own vocal personality to honor one of those …

By EDWARD BLANCO, Young Swedish-born guitarist Tobias Grim announces his debut album with Brazil Lines, a light Brazilian-styled vocal project featuring singer Karolina Vucidolac, one of Sweden’s finest interpreters of the genre. Originally from Linkoping, Sweden, Grim began his musical career performing Rock and Funk music, moved to London for a while, …